5 Tips on Finding the Best Tenants for your Property

The most important factor for most landlords is that their property is occupied by a paying tenant, but it can be difficult to locate new tenants, and there are many things to think about before a tenancy agreement is put in place. Will either students or business people rent your property? Will the property be managed by a property manager?It’s crucial to maintain the property in good condition to ensure that you attract any tenants at all, much less the correct tenants. You won’t obtain valuable tenants by accident. To help you find the best tenants for your property, we’ve put together five tips. 

What makes a good tenant?

When selecting a tenant, you want to ensure that they can and will pay rent on time and in full. You also want to confirm that they will look after your property.

There are a number of ways to do this, such as asking for evidence of their current income (usually, you want to make sure the tenants make enough money each quarter to cover the rent annually) and checking their rental history to see if they have ever paid their rent on time.

Examining whether or not the prospective renter will maintain your property with cleanliness and respect during their tenure is a secondary consideration. 

You can once more consider stating indicators like rental and eviction history, even if this is more difficult to figure out.

So let’s get to the tips that’ll help you with finding the best tenants for your property. 

Tip #1 – Screen the potential tenants

It is not unreasonable to conduct background checks on potential tenants. Setting basic requirements for potential tenants will make it simpler for you to pick out candidates. You can base it on things like work, family size, and rental history. You should continue marketing the property if none of your potential tenants match the requirements.  If more than one renter meets the requirements specified, you should just rent to the first qualified applicant.

Your criteria might look like this, for example:

• Newly-wed couple or family of 3.
• No previous evictions on record.
• No criminal record
• Employment letter.

Be severe and apply your standards equally to each and every candidate. Reevaluate your criteria—are they reasonable given the neighbourhood the property is located in?—if, for any reason, you do decide to lower your standards, because the property could have been vacant for too long.

Tip #2 – Use appropriate listing platforms

We understand that people are constantly looking for apartments, but where you list your properties can make all the difference. Bear in mind that different tenant types look for their next home on different platforms. 

So, you could have a perfect place to rent and a perfect ad, but if you post it in the wrong category or platform, it won’t get the right attention it needs, and you won’t find great tenants.

Students would search on a different platform like Telegram or WhatsApp, while young professionals would be on platforms like ours, and the older generation would rather go for referrals. 

Tip #3 – Be clear with your terms on the Tenancy Agreement

The tenancy agreement is the legal document that outlines the rights and responsibilities of both the landlord and the tenant. It allows the tenant to occupy and use the property for a specific period under certain conditions.

In this way, the lease provides both parties with legal protection. It also ensures that both landlord and tenant understand their respective roles concerning the property. 

So to have a cordial relationship with your tenants, state clearly all that would be required of them and all you would do for them. Engage a legal practitioner to ensure that the process is done properly. Read more about the tenancy agreement here. 

Tip #4 – Hire a Property Manager

Getting a property manager is also one of the tips that is important for finding the best tenants for your property. Apart from using an agent to assist in putting your property on the market and getting potential tenants, you would also need a property manager who would handle the day-to-day activities of managing your property and ensure your property stays in perfect shape, and your tenants are being taken care of. 

Tip #5 – Don’t rush into it

Many landlords just go ahead and admit any tenant into their apartment, as long as that tenant has the money to pay for the property. This happens mostly when the apartments have been empty for so long that they are losing money.

Normally, an apartment should be occupied almost immediately after the previous tenant vacates the property to ensure money doesn’t stop flowing in. But in cases where the rooms become empty for months, at this point desperation sets in and the landlord goes ahead to admit anyone that comes his/her way into the property without running through the right process. 

But note that the cost of the wrong tenant is far higher and longer than the temporary hit you’ll take on an empty property while you’re searching for the right person to live in it.

Final tips: on maintaining good tenants

It’s not enough to simply secure great tenants. There are a few things you as a landlord should do to guarantee your renter has a stress-free renting experience and wants to stay in your property for longer in order to avoid having to go through this entire process too frequently.

The first thing is to make sure you have a great property manager that the tenants can rely on and that you can trust to handle things amicably. 

You also need to make sure you meet your end of the bargain in the tenancy agreements. Are there any repairs or services you need to provide? Make sure you do them. 

Last but not least, tenants frequently decide to move because of what they view as unreasonable rent increases. 

Therefore, even though it makes financial sense to raise the rent on a regular basis in tiny increments to keep up with market prices, substantial increases will frequently result in your renters moving away. You can end up paying more for the eventual vacancy than for the higher rent.

Are there any other tips on finding the best tenants for your property that you think we’ve left out? Share with the community.